PART 2 Chapter 6 THE COMMUNITY'S CHAMPION
6.3 THE SON'S APPROACH TO ITS AUDIENCE
6.3.1 Focusing on readers and their lives
6.3.1.1 Providing content to which readers can relate
It is clear from the analysis in chapter 5 (see sections 5.4.1.2 and 5.4.1.4) that readers are attracted to the Son's content because it represents their immediate circumstances in a way with which they can identify and to which they can relate. From the remarks included in this chapter, it becomes clear that this local focus also contributes to the respondents’ perceptions that the Son is a quality newspaper. Twenty-nine of the 71 respondents who had positive reactions towards the newspaper's quality claimed that “good” newspapers accentuate news about its reading community. When asked why they regard the Son as a good newspaper, their answers included the following: “Dit gee nuus van die omgewing en sy mense”,224 “Dit gaan oor nuus in die Wes-Kaap”,225 “Jy weet
224 [“It gives news about the community and its people”]
wat in die omgewing gebeur”,226 “Dit is wat gebeur in die Kaap”,227 “Dit het nie so baie nuus soos Die Burger nie, maar dit het meer nuus van die Kaap self en die omgewing”,228 “Son is meer gefokus op die Wes-Kaap”,229 “Dit sê alles van waar ek bly, die omgewing”,230 “Ek kry al die nuus van die Kaap”,231 “Dit gaan oor die mense in die Wes-Kaap”,232 “Dit hou my op hoogte van nuus wat om ons gebeur”,233 “Die Son fokus op ons mense”234 and so forth. Their responses reveal that they regard local and relevant coverage as indicators of quality.
These responses are in accordance with what the literature suggests quality journalism should do:
make information relevant to the audience. In this regard, the readers and the critics appear to agree that a quality newspaper offers relevant information (see Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2001:149;
sections 2.4.8 and 2.4.8.1).
These overwhelmingly similar responses also support the fndings of the previous chapter: the Son's focus on strong local news stories contributes largely to its success. Not only do readers prefer these stories, because they fnd them interesting, relevant, and useful, but they also agree with the critics that a newspaper should inform readers about events that impact on their lives (see sections 2.3.3.2 and 5.4.1.2). This is illustrated by the following two conversations with a fower seller and a female farm worker:
Respondent: En nou en dan is daar ook belangrike stories daarin wat jy kan... in belangstel.
Interviewer: O, belangrike stories?
Respondent: Hmm.
Interviewer: Wat is daardie tipe belangrike stories?
Respondent: Hoe kan ek nou sê...
Interviewer: Vir jou... wat is belangrik?
Respondent: Nou die dag was daar ’n storie van ’n ouer...
Interviewer: Ja?
Respondent: … wat se kind ook ’n moord gemaak het.
Interviewer: O, ja. Daardie vrou.
Respondent: Ja, toe’t ek gesê...
Interviewer: O ja, wat sy haar kind polisie toe gevat het?
Respondent: Polisie toe gevat het. Toe het ek gesê ‘nee, daar respek ek haar’. Want sy... dis reg wat sy gedoen het. As wat sy nou stories gaan hoor agterna, of so.
226 [“You know what’s happening in the area”]
227 [“It's about what’s happening in the Cape”]
228 [“It does not give as much news as Die Burger, but it offers more news about the Cape and the area”]
229 [“The Son is more focused on the Western Cape”]
230 [“It says everything about where I live, my environment”]
231 [“I get all the news about the Cape”]
232 [“It's about the people of the Western Cape”]
233 [“It keeps me up to date about what’s happening in my area”]
234 [“The Son focuses on our people”]
[See addendum A, E27 for translation]
This conversation, which concerned the story MA LEWER LAAITIE UIT ‘WAT LEM’: Vrou doen regte ding al breek hart (Prinsloo, 2010b:1, 5; see addendum B, illustration 3.14 [Monday, 16 August 2010]; see section 3.3.1.1), demonstrates the extent to which readers relate to the stories in the newspaper, and it supports the fnding in chapter 5 that the respondents prefer news with which they can identify and apply to their own lives. This woman's response shows that readers not only relate to stories, but they also are involved at a more personal and emotional level by imagining themselves in similar situations. Reader responses also imply that they imagine how they would react when confronted with similar challenges. This conversation is signifcant because it reiterates the notion that readers fnd meaningful and applicable information in the newspaper (see Kovach
& Rosenstiel, 2001:149; Motloung, 2007; Joseph, 2005a:31; section 2.4.8.1).
The conversation brings another issue to the fore: how do readers in more rural areas relate to stories that are not close in terms of geography? Do readers in Montagu and Oudtshoorn identify with gang-related stories about Cape Town when, according to them, they do not experience similar problems in their own communities? The answer, as the following conversations with female farm workers in Montagu indicate, is a defnite yes. As the above conversation suggests, readers do not only relate to stories that impact directly or indirectly on their lives; when viewed within the theoretical framework of the proximity and distance news dimensions, it becomes evident that they relate to stories at a socio-psychological level. In other words, readers identify with stories and characters, because they relate to them emotionally (see De Beer, 1977:40; see sections 2.4.4 and 4.3):
Interviewer: Dink jy dis ’n goeie koerant? Die Son?
Respondent: Ja. Dis ’n goeie koerant.
Interviewer: Wat maak van dit ’n goeie koerant?
Respondent: Nee, dis mos nou meer oor die omgewing en...
Interviewer: Ja?
Respondent: … en wat die Rapport of Die Burger is mos meer oor ander lande en – hoewel hulle mense ook weet, want ek weet nou nie, want ek wil partykeer nou weet wat aangaan daar.
Interviewer: Ja?
Respondent: Want ek hou mos nou van lees en sulke dinge. Maar vir dié omgewing, dan weet
’n mens ook nou wat rondom jou aangaan en waar dit gebeur het en...
[See addendum A, E28 for translation]
Although the newspaper only publishes stories about these rural communities occasionally, this
respondent is adamant that the newspaper informs her about community events, which means that she clearly relates to happenings in Cape Town at a socio-psychological level. She therefore reads these reports as aimed at the coloured community, and not at Capetonians. This suggests that the readers view themselves as part of an imagined reading community who struggle with similar issues: although Montagu is not troubled by gangsters, they also experience problems such as teenage pregnancies, men who drink too much, illiteracy, and a lack of service delivery. One reader tried to explain why she reads the Son:
Respondent: Want ons het mos baie wat kan gesê raak in die Son. En eintlik... daar's meer oor mans.
Interviewer: Dis nou interessant wat jy nou sê: Julle het mos baie om te sê in die koerant.
Watter tipe goed het julle te sê in die koerant? Kyk, ek ken mos nie jou mense en jou gemeenskap nie...
Respondent: Nee, oor die probleme maar wat ons het. Huisprobleme en sulke goete. Met die kinders. Sulke goete.
Interviewer: Watter tipe huisprobleme wil jy graag hier sien?
Respondent: Ek het eintlik ook eintlik naastenby so af en toe ’n huweliksprobleem gehad en nou's dit weer verby. En drink. Daai goeters.
Interviewer. O?
Respondent: Ek's nie ’n drinker nie, maar my man het nou die afgelope tyd weer begin drink en dit vreet so aan my kinders.
[See addendum A, E29 for translation]
The readers, therefore, appear to believe that the newspaper refects common issues, interests and aspirations. This seems to strengthen reading community ties. This observation affrms the study's argument that the S o n is a community newspaper that serves a community of interest (see Lauterer, 2006:27, 42; section 3.4). This woman believes that the newspaper equips her with the information she needs to organise her daily life, even though she lives in a rural area. Another reader who lives in the same area reiterated her response:
Interviewer: Dink jy die Son is ’n goeie koerant?
Respondent: Nee-ja. Ja, ek dink so. Want, om mense in te lig oor wat rêrig aangaan. Soos hier by ons, jy weet in die koerante... Son het mos baie van die Tik gepraat. Kyk en, want...
Interviewer: Ja?
Respondent: En hier by ons ook. Hier op die plaas. Ek weet amper nie eers van so ’n geval hier rond nie. So, maar dit is maar om mense in te lig dat dit wel ge...
Interviewer: Dat dit wel gebeur?
Respondent: Ja, en dat daar iets soos Tik bestaan. Ek dink, was dit nie in die Son nie, sou ek seker nie eers...
Interviewer: … geweet het daarvan nie?
Respondent. Ja.
[See addendum A, E30 for translation]
A conversation with another reader reaffrms that these readers in rural communities still identify with the often Cape Town-based information offered in the newspaper:
Interviewer: O, en wat is daardie goed wat vir jou die belangrikste is?
Respondent: Nee kyk, nou soos, veral soos 'n kind wat weggeraak het of nou...
Interviewer: O, okei.
Respondent: … so, en daai tipe dinge.
Interviewer: Voel jy dis vir jou belangrik om dit te lees?
Respondent: Ja, want... ek lees dit altyd, want ek voel nou as ek nou in daai situasie gewees het, sien jy?
Interviewer: O, okei. Wat sou jy gedoen het en hoe sou jy...?
Respondent: Hmm.
Interviewer: O, so jy lees meestal van kinders en goed wat met jou...
Respondent: Ja, en goed soos ’n vrou wat verkrag word.
Interviewer: Ja?
Respondent: So.
Interviewer: O, so goed waarmee jy kan identifseer?
Respondent: Ja.
Interviewer: ’n Vrou of kinders of sulke goed?
Respondent: Hmm.
Interviewer: En hoe laat dit jou voel as jy sulke goed lees soos oor ’n vrou wat verkrag is of kinders wat weggeraak het of...?
Respondent: Nee, ek...
Interviewer: Raak jy kwaad of raak jy hartseer of... ?
Respondent: Ja, veral as die kindertjies ook nou verkrag word wat nou...
Interviewer: O, okei.
Respondent: Die weerlose kindertjies. Nee, dan is ek nou nogal baie partykeer, maar...
Interviewer: O, jy raak lekker kwaad?
Respondent: Ja. Of ek sê sommer partykeer iets, dan sê ek ‘nee, hulle moet sommer alles van hom afsit, of...’
[See addendum A, E31 for translation]
This conversation pertains to the above argument. The reader did not hesitate when asked why she regards the Son as a good newspaper, and she was able to motivate her response. Her apparent struggle to defend her preference for local news by adding that she is also interested in the “other”
events covered by the two mainstream newspapers Die Burger and Rapport is curious. She tried to explain that she does not regard the other newspapers as “bad” or of poor quality. Her response reveals that she prefers reading about her own community, and that this focus strengthens her